Legislation (HR-3584) that has passed the House contains language requiring the TSA to review which of its investigators should be eligible for special law enforcement officer benefits, the latest in a series of bills reacting to an IG report questioning use of “law enforcement availability pay” at the agency.
The bill focuses on TSA’s office of inspection, which conducts internal inspections, investigations and covert tests to assess the integrity of the agency’s activities and staff. Criminal investigators are eligible for availability pay and for enhanced retirement benefits.
The IG concluded that some of those employees who receive that pay, which is worth an additional 25 percent of salary, apparently do not meet the threshold of spending at least half of their time in actual investigative work.
Similar reports questioning use at CBP of a similar form of add-on pay for front-line law enforcement personnel called administratively uncontrollable overtime led to a law changing overtime policies there.
